Hollywood's film industry relies on a staged approach to theatrical releases. A new movie is usually first released only to movie theaters. Marketing efforts and popular opinion of a film is often at its peak surrounding the film's initial release, and film studios look to recoup as much of their investment as possible through ticket sales at the movie theater box offices. A film cannot remain at the box office forever, though, and it is eventually pulled from theaters to be released for sale or rental on a physical medium (e.g., a Digital Video Disk-DVD, Blu-Ray, etc.), or as a pay-per-view option in a restricted environment, such as a cable television system, satellite system, hotel system, or the like.
After the film has had its run in that sales and pay-per-view stage, it may then be released to pay cable channels, such as HBO, SHOWTIME, CINEMAX, etc. After the cable channels have had their run with the film, the film may then be released to an over-the-air television network, such as ABC, CBS, NBC, etc., and may be made available for personal computer download at websites associated with those television networks, or on other Internet sites.
This staged, controlled, release is performed in order to maximize revenue. Since movie piracy is the principal threat to that revenue, it is not surprising that these stages begin with the most restrictive and difficult to pirate (movie theaters), and end with the least restrictive and easiest to pirate (over-the-air broadcasts and Internet downloads).
Notably for the present discussion, the Internet download option tends to be offered only towards the tail end of the movie's staged release, sometimes over a year after the movie's theatrical release. This late timing is due to the inherent insecurity of a personal computer (PC) platform. A wide array of PC software tools (hacking programs, debuggers, etc.) allows pirates to access an Internet movie download, break whatever copy protection is included with the movie, and copy it, so studios are loathe to release a movie for Internet download too early in the release cycle.
However, since many of us spend more time with our computers than our televisions, and since the marketing and popularity of a film is often higher at the earlier stages in the release cycle, studio revenues could be increased if new movies could be securely released to a wider audience in the earlier stages of a release.